King’s fate rests with Supreme Court

Convicted killer John William King is escorted into the Jasper County Courthouse for the punishment phase of his trial Wednesday, Feb. 24, 1999, in Jasper, Texas. King was convicted of capital murder in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. (AP Photo/Adrees Latif, POOL) less

Convicted killer John William King is escorted into the Jasper County Courthouse for the punishment phase of his trial Wednesday, Feb. 24, 1999, in Jasper, Texas. King was convicted of capital murder in the ... more

Photo: ADREES LATIF, POOL

Photo: ADREES LATIF, POOL

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Convicted killer John William King is escorted into the Jasper County Courthouse for the punishment phase of his trial Wednesday, Feb. 24, 1999, in Jasper, Texas. King was convicted of capital murder in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. (AP Photo/Adrees Latif, POOL) less

Convicted killer John William King is escorted into the Jasper County Courthouse for the punishment phase of his trial Wednesday, Feb. 24, 1999, in Jasper, Texas. King was convicted of capital murder in the ... more

Photo: ADREES LATIF, POOL

King’s fate rests with Supreme Court

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A divided Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday denied Jasper killer John William King’s petition for a stay of execution, moving the last-minute legal maneuverings to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Texas justices ruled 5-4 to allow King’s scheduled execution to go forward on Wednesday. The four judges who voted to grant King’s motion for a delay cited “substantial questions,” including unresolved ones regarding his potential innocence.

King has maintained throughout his appeals over the last two decades that he did not participate in the racially motivated dragging death of James Byrd Jr. along a country road in 1998. He was convicted of capital murder in 1999 and sentenced to die.

Attorneys filed their petition for a stay of execution Tuesday afternoon to the U.S. Supreme Court after the Texas appeals court ruling.

“The James Byrd lynching is obviously one of the most horrific murders in modern American history,” said Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center. “But what we need to keep in mind is that, in a fair judicial system, it’s important that all prisoners, no matter what they’re accused of, have meaningful access to the courts.”

King, 44, has been at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston since February 1999. He is one of three men convicted of capital murder for chaining 49-year-old Byrd to the back of a pickup and dragging him three miles before leaving his mangled body the roadside.

Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed in 2011. Shawn Allen Berry is serving a life sentence and will be eligible for parole consideration in 2038.

A warrant for King’s death was signed by state District Judge Craig Mixson in December, two months after the Supreme Court denied his last round of appeals. King, a shocking figure with white supremacist tattoos, has maintained in all appeals that he was not present for Byrd’s death.

During a recent interview with The Enterprise, former Jasper County Sheriff Billy Rowles, whose department investigated the crime, called King the “ringleader.”

Rowles will be in Huntsville Wednesday, but will not witness the execution.

On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously voted against both a 120-day reprieve and commutation.

If his latest motion is denied, King will be the first person executed in the U.S. since February. Five deaths have been stayed and one rescheduled since Texas executed Billie Wayne Coble on Feb. 28.

Texas is one of eight states that uses only one drug for lethal injection. Since 2012, the state has administered pentobarbital, which causes respiratory arrest.

“The drug that Texas uses is not the drug that has been involved in the lethal injection challenges across the country,” Dunham said, adding that it has not been implicated in botched executions where people take an enormous amount of time to die or are left conscious while being “chemically burned to death.”

An execution generally takes less than 15 minutes, Dunham said, and “death likely occurs in less time than that with a single drug.”

Brewer’s 2011 death was brought about with a three-drug protocol that included potassium chloride, pentobarbital and pancuronium bromide.

His execution also included a last meal, but he was the last inmate in the state to receive one.

The practice that had been in place since the 1920s ended after King’s friend submitted an order that included two chicken-fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, a cheese omelet, a large bowl of fried okra with ketchup, one pound of barbecue , half a loaf of white bread, three fajitas, a meat-lovers pizza, a pint of Blue Bell ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge.

He didn’t eat one bite.

Brewer had no final statement before being put to death. In an interview with The Enterprise last week, Byrd’s sister, who will witness King’s death as she did Brewer’s, said she expects King to do the same.

“If he does say something, we’re not sure what angle he would be coming from — die with hate, or show some type of remorse,” Louvon Harris said. “That remains to be seen.”